Sabri Zain's letter

We received this last month and replied promptly. We hope to
get more.

>From asabri@pc.jaring.my Sun Dec 6 10:45:58 1998
>Received: from asabri.pop.jaring.my (j1.jrc25.jaring.my
[161.142.110.15])
>by relay8.jaring.my (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id CAA16547;
>Mon, 7 Dec 1998 02:45:16 +0800 (MYT)
>Message-ID: <366AD1AC.633C@pc.jaring.my>
>Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 02:49:16 +0800
>From: Sabri Zain
>Reply-To: asabri@pc.jaring.my
>Organization: The Maquis
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (Win16; I)
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>To: sangkancil@malaysia.net
>CC: Shaike , kazim65@hotmail.com
>Subject: To the Webmasters of Socialist Malaysia
>References: <001301be2134$e1a426c0$663abcca@s.-azrin>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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>
>Shaike wrote:
>>
>> There's a new political party being formed. It is called Socialist
>> Malaysia.
>> To see what it stands for check out
>>
>> http:/members.tripod/~socialistmalaysia/index.html
>>
>> and judge for yourself.
>>
>
>Firstly, the url above is wrong. It should be
>http://members.tripod.com/~socialistmalaysia/index.html
>
>Now, a few comments about the website itself. Note that I do not
>address these comments to Shaike individually - just to the bozos
>behind the above website.
>
>The first thing that struck me about Socialist Malaysia was the
>news section, which one would have thought would be the main anchor
>of the website and give first-time visitors a general idea as to
>what the organisation behind it stands for. But visitors reading
>it could be forgiven for thinking that they had inadvertently
>stumbled onto AnwarGate or some other similar 'I-Hate-Anwar' website.
>
>Particularly interesting was the long list of about two dozen Anwar
>friends and family members, outlining in staggering detail which
>companies they owned, what shares they have, where they live and how
>much the house cost, even what cars they drive. This would have been
>quite reasonable if they had also got into great length about
>Mahathir's or Daim's friends and family members - but Socialist
>Malaysia doesn't seem to have been as enthusiastic digging up the
>dirt on these particular individuals.
>
>In fact, PRM's Dr Syed Husin Ali's letter to the NST and Kadir Jasin
>(which MGG posted over Sangkancil today) could have just as easily been
>applied to Socialist Malaysia! You will remember that Syed was
>commenting on how the NST and some other papers have been
>enthusiastically exposing the companies, businesses and amount of
>shares owned by Datuk Zahid Hamidi and Datuk A Rahim Ghouse but
>seemed to be ignoroing companies, businesses and shares owned by
>those considered to be Mahathir's cronies. A case of great minds
thinking alike, perhaps?
>
>This set the tone for pretty much most of the 'news' found on
>Socialist Malaysia - Anwar is a "Jekyll and Hyde",
>"Master Conspirator", "Chauvinist" and (most vicious slur of all)
>"worse than Mahathir". Mahathir, apparently, was not deserving of
>such accolades. About the worst thing I could find written about
>Mahathir on Socialist Malaysia was that he was "interested in his
>own personal gain"! Ooooo ... nasty one, that. In fact there was even
>a compliment of sorts from the webmasters of Socialist Malaysia -
>"Mahathir, at least, never mince his words but Anwar, as the native
>Americans said it, has a forked tongue."
>
>Particularly revolting was a little piece entitled "50 Reasons Why
>the PM Cannot Be Anwar", which was so full of f*** words and comments
>about Anwar's genitals and orifices that it would have even made
>Khalid Jaffri and Ummi Hafilda blush.
>
>Strangely, the rest of the website consists of the usual high-minded
>socialist ideals - much of it looks very much like just a simple
>cut-and-paste job from the World Socialist Web Site, with little or
>no modification. In fact, the noble vanguard-of-the-proletariat
>intellectual idealism of one half of the website appears a stark
>contrast to the crude, vulgar "50 dalil"-type character assasination of
>the other half - which makes me wonder who *really* is the Jekyll
>and Hyde here.
>
>Oh by the way, the don't seem to like PAS very much either, which
>they called " the party of religious extremists who have no feeling
>whatsoever towards people of other religions and faiths" .
>
>For an organisation calling itself "socialist", it does not seem to
>have been politically-attuned to the fact that the political drama -
>and the political struggle - now has gone well beyond Anwar the man.
>Instead of seeking to make the rakyat aware of the gross manipulation
>of our democratic institutions by the ruling elite that has been so
>graphically and brutally demonstrated in this issue, they seem to be
>indirectly parroting the government line that Anwar is a monster and
>he as well as his sympathisers deserve all they're getting now.
>Instead of educating and guiding their toiling masses towards
>supporting the progressive forces at work in the country, they seem
>to be doing their best to justify the actions of the oligarchy and
>the forces of reaction (if I may use the usual Socialist jargon).
>
>So, guys, do forgive me if I give Socialist Malaysia a miss come the
>next elections - if I want socialism, I'll vote PRM - they don't like
>Anwar very much too, but at least they're decent about it. Voting for
>you guys now feels too much like voting for Khalil Jaffri.
>
>And your lofty pontificating about "socialist principles and fighting
>for social and economic justice to create a democratic society" sort of
>jars next to your little quips about "DPM (Double Penetration Master)"
>and "f***ing gays".
>
>P.S. For a *real* socialist party, go to
>http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/1773/index.html
>
>
>/\__/\
> @ @
>={_!_}=
>
>Sabri Zain
>
>BERITA REFORMASI di http://reformnews.cjb.net
>
>"For God knows the Truth and to Him do we return."
>- 'Sejarah Melayu' at http://malaya.cjb.net
>
>"They invade our space and we fall back.
> They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back.
> NEVER AGAIN, THE LINE MUST BE DRAWN HERE!"
>-Captain Jean-Luc Picard, 'First Contact'
>

Our reply

dear friend,

first of all, we are not part of the Socialist Party of Malaysia.
If you want to know about the party you can contact Dr Mohd Nasir
Hashim or the address (Risalah Parti) in the Socialist Malaysia site.

second, if you can't accept the fact that Anwar is as horrible as
Mahathir (by the way, there's no need for us to put much stories on
Mahathir because all the pro-Anwar sites are condemning the old man
every day), then what can we say? freedom of speech?

third, you made us laugh when you mentioned "real socialist party"
and without having to click on the URL, we knew it was PRM. Surely
you know PRM was PSRM. The S was socialist. The name of the party
and the ideology of the party. Please don't let Syed Husin blush if
he knew that you thought his party is still socialist. They dropped
the name about 9 years ago. So afraid of the word socialist. I think
they confused socialism with religion, and malay nationalism.

anyway, nice to hear from you. and sorry, we will have more "crude"
and "rude" jokes about Anwar (funny that people can easily accept
such jokes about Mahathir but when it come to that holy sacred,
almost a prophet-like Anwar,wow...) It seems that there are people
who enjoy such jokes. Lighten up man...see ya.